Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"So, the humans are so important to you that you will just answer when they call, no matter what?" the woman that looked like Li Dai Lu asked him almost choking on the words. "Even if it means leaving me?" The look of helplessness and vulnerability on her face was one that Liu Yu Zeng never wanted to see on his woman. I would destroy the whole world to make her smile.

He could feel his body fighting him, his mouth wanting to apologize, to insist that he needed to answer when he was called. 'Fuck that shit,' thought Liu Yu Zeng as his anger began to rise. What was the point in having all that blood on his hands, following all the rules of his family, even when he wanted to do nothing more than break down and refuse? But he fought, he killed, and he made a place for himself despite everything. He would not be a spectator in this matter. Li Dai Lu was his reward from Heaven and he would not let her slip through his fingers.

Liu Yu Zeng continued to fight inside his body, forcing his protesting muscles to stand up. Sweat broke out on his forehead as his legs began to shake, not wanting to follow his orders. 'Fuck this shit,' he thought again, and in a single heave, he was standing in front of the woman that held his world in her hands.

"No one will ever be more important to me than you," he promised her as he stalked the remaining distance between them. Pulling her roughly into his arms, he stared down into her eyes. "If they want to separate us again, then let them all die," he growled before taking her lips in his and forcing a demanding kiss that spoke of all his desires, his fears, his dreams. He kissed her as he had never kissed her before, wanted to take part of her into him so they could never be separated.

Liu Yu Zeng didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but he felt himself pulling a piece of her into him and in return, giving her a piece of himself as well. However, he was unable to take his lips off this succulent offering in front of him to even begin to figure out what was going on.

His lips continued their journey across her silken skin, giving her lips a brief reprieve as he moved on to her jaw, her neck. "You are mine," he growled, pulling himself back just enough to look at her. "Do you understand that? You. Are. Mine!"

"I am yours," she agreed, the smile on her face lighting up his very being.  "And you are mine," she continued looking up at him as if she wanted reassurance on that matter.

"I am yours, forever and always," he vowed, bringing his lips back down onto hers. "Forever and always," he repeated before everything went black.

------

"Li Dai Lu!" screamed Liu Yu Zeng, sitting up in bed in an absolute panic. Looking around the bedroom that they had claimed in the penthouse, the only one to be able to allow all of them to sleep together, he couldn't find the woman that he was just dreaming about. "Li Dai Lu!" he yelled again as he desperately tried to untangle himself from the blankets.

Cursing about the waste of time, he furiously ripped them off, not caring if he damaged them or not. He needed to find her, he needed to hold her, to make sure that she was alright. Finally free of the blankets, he was so distracted that he didn't notice the door open and then quietly close. He rushed forward, determined to hunt down the woman, when a solid hand landed on his chest, preventing him from going forward.

"At ease, brother," came the growled voice of Chen Zi Han as the taller man leaned down to whisper in his ear. A feeling of rage rose in Liu Yu Zeng at the very idea that the man in front of him was attempting to keep him from his mate. Letting out a growl of his own, he gripped Chen Zi Han's hand that was on his chest with his right hand and as hard as he could, drove his left forearm into his opponent's elbow causing him to break his hold.

Darkness clouded his vision and he let out a low growl as he felt something surging inside of him. Throwing Chen Zi Han over his knee, he watched impassively as the man he considered to be closer to him than his brother laid stomach down on the floor with his knee digging in on his lower back, applying more and more pressure.

But Chen Zi Han didn't fight back, didn't struggle in anyways, and instead only said three words: "She doesn't remember."  Those words shocked Liu Yu Zeng and he relaxed his pressure on the other man's back and arm.

"What do you mean, she doesn't remember?"

"You had the dream too, right?" asked Chen Zi Han as he stood up and dusted himself off. He didn't take offense to Liu Yu Zeng's attack. He would have done a lot worse to the person that tried to keep him away from Li Dai Lu.

"Dream?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, refusing to admit to anything. He knew that his dream was way too real to be considered something as fleeting and mundane as a 'dream'.

"The valley, the mountains, the pergola," said Chen Zi Han, as he studied the man before him. But like him, Liu Yu Zeng was not willing to admit to anything and simply stared back at him, his arms crossed over his chest. "The woman," he whispered to the other man, like saying her name was to commit blasphemy. "She does not remember any of it like we do," admitted Chen Zi Han as he took a step back from Liu Yu Zeng.

"Why?" he asked, not willing to admit to anything but still needing to know what was going on.

'Are you two ok? I see a new flame. Is that Liu Yu Zeng?' came a voice inside the heads of Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han.  Chen Zi Han, who had gotten used to not being able to hide anything from Li Dai Lu simply smiled.

'We are fine,' he reassured her. 'Just trying to figure out a few things.' He glared at the stupefied man across from him, wanting him to hurry up and comfort their woman.

'All good, Sweetness,' said Liu Yu Zeng.

'You sure?' came the tentative voice.

'I am right beside him, Princess, he is fine,' said Chen Zi Han in a calming voice. 'You just worry about finishing your lunch and getting ready for your meeting.'

'If you're sure.'

'We are,' reassured Liu Yu Zeng, no longer as stunned about having a whole conversation with multiple people inside his head. 'We will be out in just a little bit.'

'Sounds good. And Liu Yu Zeng?'

'Yes, Sweetness?' came the chuckled reply. Now that he knew the woman was safe, he was able to push back the rage and begin to function.

'Your flame is beautiful.'

As soon as she spoke the words, he could feel a link inside of him close, like an old-fashioned telephone being hung up.

"You going to explain what is going on?" he asked out loud, looking at Chen Zi Han before going to sit down on the edge of the mattress.

"First, look inside of yourself, deep down," said Chen Zi Han as he went over to sit beside the man that was about to have his world rocked. Whether he considered it a good thing or a bad thing still had to be determined.

"You know I don't subscribe to that new-age bullshit," said Liu Yu Zeng rolling his eyes before he attempted to follow Chen Zi Han's instructions. He let go of everything and imagined diving deep into the darkness that was inside of him.

There, in the distance, he was able to see two flames burning, chasing away the darkness. Startled, he snapped his head back and looked at the man beside him, looking for answers that he was hoping the other man had.

"I don't have all the answers," said Chen Zi Han, effectively reading the face of the man that was his boss most of his life. "I only know what I was able to figure out."

"And that is?"

"The blue flame is the Princess's, hers burns the brightest inside me," started Chen Zi Han as his eyes lost focus and a smile appeared on his face. "Mine is the black flame," he continued as he opened his eyes and looked over at Liu Yu Zeng. "Yours is white. It was how I figured out that you probably had the same dream that I had."

Liu Yu Zeng took a second to draw in a breath before he went back to study the flames inside of him. Chen Zi Han was right. There was a blue flame in the center, its very size almost dwarfing the other two flames. He studied his white flame that seemed to be orbiting the blue flame before turning his attention to the black flame that was doing the same thing.

He had managed to overlook the black flame before, simply because it blended so well into the darkness, but now that he saw it, he couldn't ever mistake it again.

"What does this mean?" he asked, looking to his second in command and the man that he trusted more than anyone in the world.

"No idea," the other man admitted.